News – Page 234

EV maker Mullen taps ex-GM executive John Schwegman

Mullen Automotive has tapped former General Motors executive John Schwegman to be the electric vehicle maker's chief commercial officer.

Schwegman spent 35 years at GM in a variety of marketing-related roles, most recently senior director of global Chevrolet product marketing, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Mullen, of Brea, Calif., said Schwegman will primarily focus on growing the electric Class 1 through Class 6 light- and medium-duty truck segment, including the Class 1 and Class 2 Mullen One, which are yet to be released.

Schwegman's experience in fleet vehicle sales, particularly when he was GM's commercial product director in the 2010s, provides ample background for the task. Schwegman was a key player in GM's bid to compete with Ford in the commercial fleet market.

"John has tremendous experience in commercial automotive sales, and this makes him a highly strategic addition to Mullen," David Michery, CEO of Mul…

Black Book announces expanded residual valuation capabilities

Lawrenceville, GA (October 21, 2022) - Black Book, a division of Hearst that provides industry-leading data and analytics, including used vehicle valuations and residual value forecast solutions, today announced an expanded data offering for its residual valuations.

Previously, residual values were available for up to 7 model years, forecasting future values from 1-72 month. Black Book has expanded used car residuals to include the most recent 10 model years and now forecasts future values for 1-120 months. This 10-year residual offering provides lenders, dealer groups, insurance companies and fleets the ability to more precisely value their older, longer-term portfolios.

“With used prices continuing to be high, consumers are financing older vehicles. In addition, loan terms are increasing and are currently at a 67-month term for new cars and a 66-month term for used cars, which requires our customers to have a longer outlook,” said Alex Yurc…

CFPB takes action to address junk data in credit reports

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

October 20, 2022

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued guidance to consumer reporting companies about their obligation to screen for and eliminate obviously false “junk data” from consumers’ credit reports. Companies need to take steps to reliably detect and remove inconsistent or impossible information from consumers’ credit profiles. For example, many children in foster care have large amounts of information on their credit reports that is clearly junk data because as minors they are prohibited from entering into most contracts for credit.

“When a credit report accuses someone of defaulting on a loan before they were born, this is nonsensical, junk data that should have never shown up in the first place,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Consumer reporting companies have a clear obligation to use better procedures to screen for and eliminate conflicting information, or information that …

Autonomy and Nova Credit launch partnership to expand access to electric vehicles

October 19, 2022 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

SAN FRANCISCO & SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Today Nova Credit, the world’s leading consumer-permissioned credit bureau, and Autonomy™, the nation’s largest electric vehicle subscription company, announced a partnership to help make access to electric vehicles easier for credit customers with ‘thin file’ or no credit history The partnership will enable Autonomy’s application process with Nova Credit’s cash flow underwriting solution, Cash Atlas™, allowing Autonomy to qualify a greater number of customers with ‘thin file’, or no credit history for a vehicle subscription. This streamlined, data-driven process will help Autonomy sustain rapid yet qualified customer growth as it expands into additional geographies and other in-demand electric vehicles.

In the U.S. alone, more than 60 million people are credit-excluded because they don’t use credit enough or in conventional ways. While traditional cre…

A Tesla factory in Mexico? Elon Musk meets with Nuevo Leon state officials, reports say

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk's appearance over the weekend in the northern Mexico state of Nuevo Leon has sparked local speculation that Mexico could be a candidate for future Tesla investment.

Musk wants the automaker to scale "to extreme size," and new factory announcements are possible by the end of the year.

The Milenio newspaper, which published a photo of Musk standing on an outside patio with Nuevo Leon first lady Mariana Rodriguez, reported Sunday that the tech billionaire met with Gov. Samuel Garcia and local economic development officials "to analyze the possibility of installing a Tesla plant."

Milenio, citing anonymous sources, said the officials are proposing a manufacturing facility in the municipality of Santa Catarina, near the state capital of Monterrey.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mexican media said state officials did not comment on the meeting.

Other Mexican media suggested the talks with loca…

The Intersection 10-23-22

Airstream stores could be the start of a diversification wave for Lithia Motors

For the last few years, Lithia Motors has been on a dealership acquisition spree across the country, buying single stores and swallowing large groups whole.

But earlier this month, the fast-growing auto retailer made an acquisition that looked different from all the others: It bought six Airstream stores in the Pacific Northwest from Airstream Adventures.

"[It's a] very small focus for the company relative to what we're doing and no real initiative to grow that business other than to really get a feel for what some of these other mobility verticals could look like," said Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer on the company's third-quarter earnings call last week.

This is not the only example of the company stretching beyond automobile retail. Last year, following its entrance into Canada, Lithia bought a Harley-Davidson store in Toronto. On the company's earnings call for the thir…

Sara Baldwin provides a primer on the Inflation Reduction Act’s EV impact (Episode 171)

The electrification director at nonprofit thinktank Energy Innovation charts the path forward for understanding how the far-reaching IRA affects electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, raw material production and U.S. power grid.

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Cops advance on theft ring

An armed robbery of a U.S. postal carrier helped police begin to unravel a crime ring that has stolen numerous muscle cars and other expensive vehicles from auto plants and dealerships in the Detroit area.

When officers caught the man suspected of robbing the postal worker outside Cleveland, they found three high-priced stolen vehicles at his home — a Ram 1500 TRX, a Land Rover Range Rover and a Dodge with a Hellcat engine, The Associated Press reported last week.

That led to federal indictments in June against four Ohio men on charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen vehicles.

One of the men told the FBI that he and another defendant communicated through Instagram with people in the Detroit area about obtaining stolen vehicles, prosecutors said. They said thieves also sold the vehicles, originally worth $50,000 to $100,000, for $3,500 to $15,000 to buyers in Chicago, Indianapolis and cities near East Coast shipping ports.

Investig…

The latest numbers on the microchip shortage: Chip outlook brightens — a bit

The forecast for lost 2022 factory production resulting from microchip shortages has softened by a small amount, according to the latest estimate from AutoForecast Solutions. But AFS predicts the year will still end with factories worldwide having eliminated 4.26 million vehicles from their plans this year because of inadequate chip supplies.

That is modestly lower than the 4.39 million year-end total AFS forecast one week ago.

The slight improvement illustrates the situation at the moment, after almost two years of the supply crisis. Automakers say the chip situation seems to be getting better but is still troubling as it approaches its third year.

The estimate of 4.26 million lost vehicles for the year would be a significant improvement over the 10.5 million lost last year. But the current figure does not reflect other supply chain troubles that manufacturers are coping with, such as shipping delays and international supply interruptions, said Sam Fio…

Editorial: Time to focus, improve dealers’ fixed operations

New-vehicle sales may hog the spotlight, but smart dealers understand that fixed operations is the engine that drives most successful franchised stores.

The same trends that have upended the new-vehicle side — inventory shortages, digital retailing and pricing transparency, and rapidly growing electrification — are now heading to service and parts. Dealers should take full advantage of this transition period to overhaul their strategies, including rethinking some of the foundational principles of how this vital part of their business operates.

Every franchised auto dealership works differently, of course, but the challenges most face in their service operations are remarkably uniform, including insufficient numbers of trained technicians, customer retention and satisfaction rates and difficulty obtaining parts. There is little that dealers can do about parts shortages, but the remaining issues are particularly ripe for a fresh approach.

Consider the rol…

Dealership whiffs on hole-in-one prize

A golfer is suing an Arkansas Ford dealership that he said owes him a free F-150 for making a hole-in-one.

Austin Clagett posed for photos holding his ball in front of the $53,595 pickup after his hole-in-one shot Oct. 8 at Morrilton Country Club.

But Jay Hodge Ford of Morrilton said it had never agreed to give the truck away in the "Tournament of a Century" event. The country club had specifically advertised it as a prize in Facebook posts tagging the dealership.

"Hole-in-one on #10 gets you the keys to this F-150," the club wrote with a photo of a F-150 4x4 SuperCrew. "Thanks to Jay Hodge Ford of Morrilton!"

The dealership, which was known as Magie Ford until a change of ownership in August, said on its Facebook page that it provided the truck "for display/advertising purposes only" because it didn't have enough lead time to obtain insurance for a giveaway. "Without our knowledge," the store wrote, "Morrilton Country Club promoted that this new…

Highlights from the latest Daily Drive podcasts, Oct. 17-20

Here are highlights from the latest episodes of 'Daily Drive', Automotive News' weekday podcast, Oct. 17-20, hosted by Jamie Butters with Kellen Walker.

"On an average, we probably receive about 100, 125 now, leads that I can say are from social media."--Eric Barbosa, managing partner of Henson Brand Dealerships in Texas, on the benefits dealers are seeing from new retail technology and digital strategies

"I believe you need three pieces of technology to get [intelligent speed assistance] right. You need a map. You need an electronic horizon that reads the data from the map that is ahead of the vehicle. And then you need a camera that can also look out for speed limit signs."--Philip Hubertus, HERE Technologies' director of product management, on intelligent speed assistance, which is now mandatory for all new vehicles sold in the European Union

"I have great confidence that, indeed, this environment is going to put a solid floor under vehicle values. An…